


A Father and a Mother (Adoption!verse remix)

by lizandletdie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, adoption!verse remix, child custody, foster parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-13 01:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2132775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A remix of A Mother and a Father wherein Arthur Gold discovers his son when the child as an infant, and his relationship with foster mom Belle French goes a lot differently than last time. How much influence should he allow a stranger to have in his son's life, and would she even be interested in remaining the boy's mother if it means sharing a child with him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lilacs

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Mother and a Father (the Adoption!verse)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1843297) by [lizandletdie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie). 



> anonymousnerdgirl on Tumblr wanted to know what would happen if Gold found out about Bae when he was a baby, so this is what happened. This is set sometime in January and features 23 year old Belle, 38 year old Arthur, and 4 month old Bae.
> 
> I hate that I have to do this, but apparently I do. If you're reading this fic anywhere besides AO3, it was posted without my consent and likely profited someone else. Please consider [donating](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=CZNGXGNP4PRX4&lc=US&item_name=The%20Mantis%20Fund&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_SM%2egif%3aNonHosted) or swinging by my Tumblr (standbyyourmantis) to let me know what you thought!

 “I don't understand,” the woman – more a girl, really – was whispering to Ruby the social worker. “He's happy here with me.”

“I know, Belle,” Ruby said to her. “But you knew it was only fostering when I asked you to take him. He has a dad, he'll be okay.”

Gold pretended not to notice that the tiny brunette holding his child had tears in her eyes as she stared down at the baby in her arms and for a moment he felt like the monster in a fairy tale come to rip a babe from the arms of its mother, but he squashed that image as soon as it came. He wasn't Rumpelstiltskin come for her first born, this was _his_ child whose mother had stolen him away and then left him in a hospital saying she couldn't be a parent anymore. This young woman hadn't had the baby for more than a few months, and she was young and pretty (though in a desperate need of some sleep and a shower). She could have children of her own – Bailey could very likely be his last chance at fatherhood.

Ruby was pushing her towards him now and he saw her shaking just a little as she gingerly held his son out to him. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to do but then his senses returned and, hooking his cane over his arm, he reached out to take the small bundle in the tiny flannel blanket. Belle was sobbing as he took the baby from her and Ruby pulled her into a hug. He barely noticed them, though, his entire focus was on this child – his son, his firstborn – who he now cradled in his arms.

The baby was beautiful, pink and well-fed and gurgling despite the tears coming from the woman who had been caring for him. Gold's breath caught in his throat when the baby looked up at him – his son had his eyes. Bailey reached out a hand and grabbed Gold's nose and he couldn't contain the smile on his face. This was everything he'd ever wanted.

It took him a moment to realize that Belle French was talking to him again.

“You'll need to give him a bath before bed,” she sniffled and he knew he should be trying to retain some of this information but he was holding his son for the first time and whatever she had to say was so much less important than the baby in his arms.

“It calms him down,” she continued. “I also read to him afterward and then he gets a bottle and then bed and...” she swallowed a sob. “Swaddling works okay, but if you sing to him that seems to help. He likes to hear your voice.”

She broke down on the last bit, her small shoulders shaking hard as she sobbed. He looked up at her reluctantly – her eyes were a brilliant blue, he noticed, but they were rimmed in red and the bags underneath distracted a bit from the effect, but he could tell she was really probably very pretty under normal circumstances and she had loved his son so he was inclined to think well of her.

“Thank you, Miss French,” he said. “I'm sure you've done the best job you could have under the circumstances, but I'm sure I can handle a baby.”

She was practically a child herself, after all. It was for the best. She just wasn't old enough to raise a child on her own.

“Just...call me if he needs anything?” she said it as a question, and he could hear that she was desperate for a connection to the baby but he couldn't offer that.

“I can assure you,” he replied. “That won't be necessary.”

She bit her lip and nodded sadly, breaking out in fresh tears. She needed a clean break, and he wasn't about to share this baby with a stranger.

“Belle,” Ruby whispered, hugging the smaller woman comfortingly. “I've gotta go get Bae set up at his house, but I'll call you tonight, okay?”

Miss French nodded and sniffled some more, but she seemed to be trying to make an effort to put on a good face as they left.

“You know,” Ruby said to him as they approached the car. “She was the only one who would take your son on such short notice and she's spent three months caring for him like her own. You could have at least been nice to her.”

He'd been unflinchingly polite to the girl, and had half a mind to tell Ruby as much when his son let out a noise of distress that captured his attention. He focused on calming the baby while Ruby checked and double-checked the infant seat in his car, and all too soon it was time to put his son into it and leave. It hurt to put the baby down, but it was the only way to get Bailey home. It was only for a little while, after all – his home was about fifteen minutes away from hers.

He saw Belle French standing at her door with a blanket wrapped half-heartedly around her small shoulders, watching him pull away with a hand pressed over her mouth. She was a perfect picture of grief, but he put that thought out of his mind as well. The important thing now was that he had his son, and they would be a family at last, albeit a very small one. That would be enough.

As he pulled away, Bailey chose that exact moment to start screaming.

 

 

The baby was broken, that was really all there was to it. He'd been screaming nearly non-stop since they got in the car, stopping only long enough to be fed at home. Bedtime had come and gone and Gold wished he'd maybe waited a day or two before claiming his son. Just long enough to read at least one book on the subject of parenting an infant because he was completely out of his depth and he knew it. He loved the baby so much it was physically painful, but he was at the point where he may have considered giving him back to the crying girl if he could get just five minutes of silence.

The crying girl! What had she been saying? Something about books and bathing? God, why hadn't he been listening to a word she said? She looked tired, but alive at least. Clearly she must have some idea of how to make Bailey stop.

Gold found a phone book before he could think better of it, flipping through to the F section and quickly locating a B. French. He refused to think about the fact that it was 11 o'clock at night, or that he'd basically ripped her heart out of her chest earlier that day. She was his only hope.

She answered with a groggy sounding _hello,_ but he was unsure whether that was due to being woken up or if she was still crying. He wasn't sure which option made him feel worse.

“Miss French?” he said into the phone, as though anyone else might have answered.

“This is Belle French,” she said warily. “Who's this?”

“Arthur Gold,” he replied. “We met earlier today, I'm Bailey's father?”

“Is he okay?” she suddenly sounded quite alert.

“He's fine...well, I think he is anyway,” he said with a sigh. “He won't stop crying, though, and I can't figure out why. I was wondering if you had any ideas.”

“Did you give him a bath?”

“I tried, but it didn't really do much. He started again as soon as he got out of the tub.”

“Did you use lavender scented oil?”

“No, should I have?”

“Babies like lavender,” she explained. “It helps calm them down.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask how the bloody hell he was supposed to have known that, but she was doing him a favor and he may need to call her again in the very near future.

“Where do I get that?” he asked instead.

“Um, the pharmacy,” she said. “There's one open 24 hours on Main, they've got it there. They also have a baby lotion with the same scent that he likes.”

“Anything else I might need to get while I'm there?”

“Yeah, lemme think,” she made some humming noises to indicate she was thinking before she spoke again. “You'll want pacifiers, at least, baby shampoo, and diaper cream. Um...I'm going to assume you have receiving blankets already, but you want as many of those as you can get – they work for literally everything. I don't know...baby medicine like Tylenol and stuff, because you don't want to wait until he has a fever before you get it because you'll panic. A thermometer, too. He's a baby, it's not that hard, you just have to anticipate his needs.”

He made a list this time, thankful for this little bit of help.

“How do I make him stop crying?” he said softly. It hurt to have to ask this, but he needed to.

“When did he start?”

“When we got in the car.”

“He doesn't like cars too much,” she explained. “He had an ear infection when I first got him and the doctor said the vibrations aggravated it. He's not in pain anymore but he still cries whenever he gets into the car.”

“Oh, is there a way around that?”

“Not really, just keep making it as pleasant as possible and eventually he should get over it. You just have to break the association.”

“Alright,” he said finally. “Thank you. I guess I'll go get those things.”

“Mr. Gold?”

“Yeah?”

“After the bath...he likes _Here Comes the Sun_ by the Beatles before bed.”

“The Beatles?”

“It's silly,” he could practically hear her blushing. “But my mum used to sing it to me so I sang it to him.”

“Oh,” he felt chastened. She'd been the only mother Bailey really had, and he'd treated her like a babysitter to be sent home at the end of the day. “Miss French, I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention earlier when you were talking to me. I was just so consumed by having him finally...”

He caught himself before he continued, and it must have been exhaustion that had him babbling like this to a damn stranger but she was, at least, gracious about it.

“No, it's alright,” she said. “I understand. It was so hard when they first gave him to me and he's such a beautiful baby. I'm very happy for you two.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I can tell you've done your best with him.”

“It was just fostering,” she replied and he could hear the sadness in her voice threatening to overwhelm her again. “He has a dad now, and I'm really, really so glad for him.”

She was crying again, damn.

“Miss French,” he said against his better judgment. “Is it alright if I call you again tomorrow? Just to make sure I'm keeping his routine?”

“Yeah,” she sounded hopeful now. “Okay. I'd really like that. Really, call me if he needs anything okay? I'd like to know he's happy, that's all. Anyway, you should probably go get the lavender stuff...”

“I should,” he agreed. He was going to be taking a screaming baby to a pharmacy in the middle of the night. There was really no reason to put this off longer than he had to.

He and Belle French made their goodbyes, and later that night as he was singing _Here Comes The Sun_ and walking his baby back and forth in the hallway he knew that, at last, he had found a family.


	2. Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so we're still going with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous said:  
> Adoption verse remix. The moment when Gold realizes a few phone calls aren't going to cut it.
> 
> anonymousnerdgirl said:  
> Adoption!remix: Prior to taking custody or even properly finding out about Bae, Gold pays a visit to Milah. His insurance was billed for her hospital visit and delivery. The results of his investigation shock him.
> 
> Some quick notes: Everything that happened backstory wise in this 'verse applies to the other one and vice versa. So yeah, Milah gave Bae up because she was on drugs in BOTH stories and Belle's dad died right before she got Bae in both stories.

Belle French was surprisingly useful. Gold had found himself calling her every night for the last week. At first, it had just been for advice on Bailey – it turned out that babies were a lot harder than one might think, and books didn't always work because babies were all different. As a result, he'd ended up spending a lot more time calling to ask her questions than he'd thought he would. And then he'd spent a lot of time calling because he liked her company. She was surprisingly intelligent, and warm, and funny. He liked her. Oh, not like that – she wasn't even twenty-five yet, and he was in his late thirties with a son and a girlfriend. But still, it was nice to have someone who cared that Bailey wasn't quite sleeping through the night yet and the books said he should be.

So he invited her to dinner. Not as a date or anything, but she missed Bailey and he kind of wanted to see how she fed him because he wasn't sure he was doing it right. It seemed like there was a lot of spit-up. It wasn't even a fancy restaurant – those didn't really allow children – but she agreed to meet him and Bailey at a chain place that he was sure would be full of screaming children (including his own, which was a strange thought).

He hadn't seen her in person since he'd come to get his son, and he'd been right that she was pretty. On a full night's sleep, a recent shower, and a smile on her face she was beautiful. It actually took a few minutes for him to recognize her as the red eyed girl he'd been expecting.

“Mr. Gold,” she said cheerfully, shaking his hand and sitting down. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“No, no,” he said, hating how dumbstruck he was at the sight of her. “I'm glad you came.”

“Hi Bae...” she cooed, scooping the baby up and settling him on her lap facing her and holding him up. “Are you living with your daddy now?”

She was fascinating when she spoke to him. Her entire face lit up as she jiggled the baby. More interestingly, though, Bailey seemed happier to see her than he had been all day. He knew her voice, and as she fussed and sang and smiled and Bailey was giggling and reaching out for her hair and necklace. It was also a little relaxing to not be holding him for a few minutes. He hadn't quite realized how much he'd missed eating without little hands grabbing for his food.

“So how have you guys been doing?” she said, holding Bae to sit against her as she jiggled him on her knee.

“It's been a little rough,” he admitted. “I'm still adjusting to his schedule.”

“Oh, yeah he's definitely set in his ways,” she replied, turning her attention to Bailey again. “Aren't you, Precious?”

Bailey answered by tangling chubby fingers in her long brown hair and tugging. She barely flinched, holding his wrist and unwinding him expertly.

“How have you been?” Gold asked, feeling unsettled. She was too fluent with his son, and he wasn't sure why that put him on edge. It was something special to see, and he almost felt like an interloper.

“Um, it's been an adjustment,” she replied as she kissed Bae's hands. “I know I only had him for three months, but...” She trailed off sadly, before shaking her head and plastering a smile back on her face. “I'm getting a lot more work done, now, though.”

“Really?” He was going to pretend he hadn't noticed her mood change. “What do you do?”

“Oh, I own a flower shop. Game of Thorns, on Main.”

“Yes, I've seen it,” he replied. “I own the pawn shop down the road, actually.”

“Really? You're _that_ Mr. Gold?”

“I see my reputation precedes me. I'm thinking of selling, though,” he admitted. “Spend more time with Bailey.”

She nodded.

“That would be great for both of you,” she said. “I'd wanted to do the same, but I couldn't really afford it.”

“So if you don't mind me asking,” he asked, changing the subject to something a little more neutral. “How did you end up with a flower shop?”

“It was my father's,” she replied, and her smile faltered again. “He died a few months ago. Just a little before I got Bae. The house was his, too.”

He pretended not to notice as she swiped the tears from under her eyes and focused her attention on Bailey again. So much for a neutral topic.

Thankfully, the waitress arrived to take their orders and by the time she'd brought his ice water and Belle's ice tea, she'd returned to her earlier good cheer as she played with the baby. How long after her father died had she gotten Bailey? Did she have anyone else in her life? Oh, he was about to make a stupid decision.

“Miss French, I have something I need to ask,” he blurted out before he could lose his nerve. “I don't actually have any family and I don't really have that many friends. If I were to need someone to watch him at some point...would you be interested?”

“Yeah,” she said with a smile lighting up her pretty blue eyes. “I'd love to.”

“Excellent. That's really, really excellent,” and my wasn't he feeling articulate today?

They fell into an awkward silence again as he watched her with the baby some more. He really shouldn't be enjoying this as much as he was. The waitress finally arrived bearing food, and Belle dodged baby hands with aplomb as she ate her fries and her cheeseburger.

“Can I ask you kind of a personal question?” she finally said and he nodded in assent. “How did Bae end up with me?”

Well, that was a fair question. Uncomfortable, but fair.

“His mother,” he finally said. “She gave him up.”

“Why?”

“I don't honestly know,” he admitted. “When we first met, we were happy. For a little while, at least. The last few years...I don't know, she was just so unhappy and then she met someone else and got involved in some things she shouldn't have. I think giving him up was one of the last lucid things she did.”

It was an abridged version of the truth, and she had been holding Bae just a little tighter the whole time he told it, kissing his baby curls sweetly. It tugged his at heart, because she looked enough like Milah that Bailey could be hers, but instead his mother was drug addict who had lied about the father of her baby and then left him with strangers.

Milah had left his home as her billing address, and that was how he found out she'd given birth. He and the baby had shared the same blood type, and when he received the doctor's file and saw that the boy had dark eyes that had been the clincher. It took him another few weeks to track Milah down and get her admit that it was his, but by then Bailey was in the system. It still took another week and a paternity test to get to the day he had arrived on Belle French's doorstep with a social worker, but it had been worth it to see his son for the first time.

He wasn't sure he'd ever see anything more beautiful in his entire life than that first view of chocolate brown eyes and fuzzy dark curls. His son was so beautiful it hurt him sometimes.

“I've missed him,” Belle said softly. “It's hard to imagine just giving him away.”

“It's hard for me, too.”

“I'm glad he'll be taken care of, though,” she came back with. “I can tell you're a great dad. He's lucky to have you.”

“You've been a big help,” he replied. “I didn't exactly have time to do a lot of reading up on babies and those books are damn liars.”

She giggled at that.

“You wouldn't believe the learning curve when I first got him. He was a month old, and he was colicky. I thought for sure I'd either die or go completely insane.”

She had a smile on his face, but he couldn't imagine the trouble she must have had with an infant and no help at all. He was doing alright, but he'd been able to call her to answer his questions. Trying to do it alone must have been so, so scary.

His thoughts were interrupted by Bailey suddenly becoming fussy. Gold instantly was on edge, preparing to take his baby and check for whatever might possibly be wrong with him.

“Oh shoot,” Belle said. “Do you have a bottle?”

“Yes!” he said quickly, digging through the bag he'd taken to carrying with him to pull out a bottle and the formula, preparing it quickly and reaching to take Bae. Of course he was hungry, it was lunch time!

“I don't mind feeding him,” Belle replied. “If you want to keep eating.”

He had no idea why he nodded, handing it over to her. She smiled as she took it, one arm holding the baby around his waist and the other holding a bottle for him.

“You're not going to be able to finish your burger,” he said weakly.

“I've had burgers before,” she replied with a shrug. “This is better.”

That's when he realized he might be in over his head.


	3. Not Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Belle/Cora meeting y'all have been begging for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anonymousnerdgirl said:  
> Since you're putting thought into it I might as well prompt: Gold tells Cora that he has an infant son. She takes the news the same way she might if he announced he had termites.
> 
> Anonymous said:  
> Adoption verse remix: what happens when Cora learns about Bae?
> 
> Anonymous said:  
> Adoption!Verse Remix: When does Cora find out Gold is still talking/meeting Belle? Does Cora ever meet Belle?

It had been the better part of a decade since Belle had babysat, but that's really what this was, wasn't it? She'd gone from mother to babysitter – it was a bit of a demotion, but she had to admit that the hours were better. For one thing, she'd forgotten how pleasant a full night of sleep could be. She was getting more work done, too, which could only help in the long run. She still missed Bailey, though. At least Mr. Gold had offered this much. She could be a beloved aunt, and at least she'd know for sure that her baby was being cared for. Except he wasn't  _her_ baby anymore, and she'd do well to remember that.

Mr. Gold had a date tonight, and Belle was watching the baby. That was all. It was a little strange that he was meeting his date at his home and not picking her up because he struck Belle as a little old fashioned – the sort who picked you up at home, pulled your chair out for you, and opened all the doors. The fact that Cora was coming to his house just seemed wrong somehow, and Belle had an inkling as to his reason. He'd not told her anything, and she hadn't asked, but she suspected this was to be the first time Cora met Bae. Something told her this evening would be off to an awkward start.

“How's he doing?” Mr. Gold asked, coming over to kiss Bae on the head as Belle was holding him and letting him flip through one of his board books. “Everything okay?”

“He's fine,” she reassured him. “He's a good boy.”

Mr. Gold gave her a funny look before nodding quietly.

“So is this the first time you're introducing him to your girlfriend?” she asked. She really tried not to probe in his life, but if she was going to be here to meet this woman then she really needed to be prepared for whatever was coming her way.

“Cora was at a spa,” he said by way of explanation. “They don't allow phones.”

It seemed a little strange that she wouldn't have canceled her plans to be with him when he met his son for the first time, but that wasn't really any of Belle's business. Perhaps he'd wanted to have some time to bond with the baby before introducing another person into the mix.

“What did she say when you told her about him?” she asked.

“I...ah – it all happened very fast,” he said and Belle had a horrible realization.

“She _doesn't know_ you have a son? You didn't tell her?”

“Not in so many words,” he admitted. “It was such a remote possibility and if I was wrong I didn't want anyone else to know. She was away by the time I knew for sure I had him, and by then it would have been awkward to phone her up and tell her.”

“And you thought springing it on her before dinner was a better option?”

“I thought letting her meet him in person was the better option,” he replied, sounding a little outraged that she would dare to doubt Bae's lovability. “Who could possibly look at him and not love him?”

His face at gone softer the moment his eyes flicked to the baby in her arms, and she understood the sentiment (it had taken her all of six hours to decide she preferred Bae to her ex-fiance, after all) but she also had a little bit of experience when it came to introducing him to existing lovers. Things didn't always go according to plan.

She grimaced at him, and would have said more except for the sound of the door closing and a woman's voice calling up the stairs.

“Arthur?” Belle heard. “Are you up there?”

Whoever Cora was, she was clearly welcomed in his home and felt comfortable here. Well, one way or the other Belle was about to be a part of this little melodrama that he'd orchestrated for himself, she just had to hope he was right.

“Just a moment,” Mr. Gold called out, hurrying into the hallway to intercept her.

Belle fought the urge to flee with the baby into the night at the prospect of what could be coming.

“Arthur,” she heard the stranger's voice rise with a flirtatious lilt as it came closer, “what are we going to a guest bedroom for?”

“It's not a guest bedroom anymore,” he said. “And there's someone I'd like you to meet.”

“Oh, okay...” the voice (and the woman it was attached to) stopped short on entering the room. Cora was pretty, probably five or six years older than Belle, with dark curly hair and fair skin. She wore heavy makeup and a tight cocktail dress. The poor thing had definitely not been expecting an infant.

“Cora,” Mr. Gold said proudly, coming to take the baby from Belle. “This is my son, Bailey.”

“Your son?” Cora sounded horrified, but her gaze hadn't left Belle where she sat in a rocking chair holding a cardboard book and a stuffed monkey. It all of a sudden occurred to Belle how this must look to an outsider – she and Bae had always shared a similar coloring, after all. Oh, shit.

“I'm the babysitter,” she blurted out all of a sudden and to her relief this made Cora relax just enough to look at the baby being presented to her by a doting papa.

“Miss French was Bae's foster mom after Milah gave him away,” Mr. Gold explained. “I wouldn't have gotten through the last couple of weeks without her.”

Cora seemed infinitely more interested in Belle than in Bae, a fact which Mr. Gold was annoyingly oblivious to as he thrust the baby into Cora's arms. Bae had been having a good time with Belle, and didn't quite understand why he had been removed from his playtime to be handed to a strange woman. As a result, he was far more curious about this stranger than he usually would have been.

Belle flinched in sympathy as Bae wrapped his fingers in Cora's hair and pulled. She scurried to her feet to save either Cora or the baby (she wasn't quite sure which yet), grabbing Bae and holding him away from Cora to give the other woman a change to untangle little fingers from her hair. The turn of her head had given Bae a glimpse of dangling diamond earrings, enticing him to release his hard-won fist full of hair and make a grab for the sparkly things. Luckily for Cora, Belle had some experience in this area and was able to snatch him away even as he wriggled his fingers and cried out.

Mr. Gold was watching the proceedings with nothing but a fascinated adoration as Bae wrinkled up his chubby little face and started crying on Belle, who shushed and cooed and tried to distract him with his monkey.

“He's very...curious,” Cora finally managed to say as she smoothed her hair back into place and adjusted her dress.

“He's a smart boy,” Mr. Gold supplied.

“Just like his father,” Cora replied flirtatiously.

Belle was going to have to disagree with that assessment, because she was fairly sure Bae wasn't dumb enough to buy that line. Gold, however, puffed up a little bit and threaded his fingers through Cora's hair before placing a soft kiss on her lips. Belle managed not to roll her eyes too hard, turning around to settle Bae on his tummy with some toys to amuse him while the grown-ups talked.

By the time she had him calm enough to turn around to face the couple they had disengaged and Cora was watching Belle smugly. This woman was far more interested in Belle than she was in the baby, which made her uneasy – she was clearly perceived as a source of competition and it was exhausting. Belle had absolutely no desire to compete with Cora for anything, much less Gold. Her one concern in this was Bae, and she wasn't really sure that Cora was a good choice of mother for him. The other woman had barely looked at him yet!

That was probably unfair of her, Cora might be a lovely woman who had just been surprised with her boyfriend having a baby. She shouldn't judge. Gold was in a much better position to know Cora's fitness to raise a child than she was, but still Belle couldn't help wondering if he even realied yet that he was essentially interviewing this woman for the job of mother.

“What time will you be home tonight?” she asked Gold. That was a nice, safe question after all. She had to know when to plan to be at home.

“Around ten,” he replied. “Thank you again for watching him.”

Belle shrugged in reply. She really liked watching Bae, and Mr. Gold was paying her to be here after all – a small formality that made both of them more comfortable with the arrangement. She did hope that at some point she wouldn't need to see Bae as much, because she wasn't sure she always wanted to be the 'other woman' in Gold's life – or Bae's surrogate mother. She had wanted to be his _mother._ She had wanted to adopt him and have him be hers, but she didn't want to be the woman who allowed his father to choose a less than ideal step-mom or worse, the one who kept away a woman who would have been perfect for them.

She couldn't always be here for him, and the sooner she accepted that fact the better it would be for everyone. She didn't really believe that sticking around longer would help her let go of him, though. She just couldn't stay away when he still needed her – she couldn't.

She also couldn't explain to Mr. Gold how important this was to her, and so she just shook her head and smiled. He smiled back and escorted Cora down the stairs and out into the night. She would stay, for as long as Bae needed her she would be here in at least some capacity.

After all, isn't that what mothers were for? Even ones who weren't able to stay as long as they'd have liked?


	4. Reflux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert: There is nothing pleasant in this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymousnerdgirl said:  
> Adoption!Remix verse: (almost smut prompt) Cora and Gold attempt to have a sexy night in, but Bae decides sleeping through the night is overrated.
> 
> Endangeredslug said:  
> Remix ask: his first encounter with the Toxic Poopy Diaper.

Belle had the baby asleep by the time Gold got Cora back to the house. He was surprised to be a little sad about that, actually. Sure, Bailey was loud and cried a lot and wasn’t very good conversation yet, but he was also the most interesting person Gold had ever met in his life. But they had gotten back later than he’d expected, and there was no sense in waking the baby just to say goodnight (no matter how much he wanted to). Cora had been practically hanging off of him all night, though, and that was also a very promising end to the night.

“How’d it go?” he asked Belle as she hopped off the sofa where she’d been quietly watching television.

“Pretty good,” she replied. “I think he’s having some reflux, though, so you may want to keep an eye on that.”

He could feel Cora’s nails dip into his arm possessively as Belle said her goodbyes and walked out the door. He wanted to walk her to her car and say a proper goodnight, but Cora had been clinging to him since they had left the restaurant and he caught himself completely unable (or unwilling) to leave her even for a moment. She’d been gone for weeks, and he’d missed her. Maybe not the same way he missed Bailey, where every second they were together was the best of his life, but he missed her all the same. She was beautiful and she was charming, and she was pressing herself against him and kissing him with the same desperation he’d felt all evening.

It wasn’t long before they were upstairs in his bedroom and he had her pressed beneath him on the bed. She was gasping and moaning as he cupped her breast through the fabric of her dress. It had been a few weeks since they’d last done this, and he was desperate for her now. She arched her back against him and he stifled a moan as her leg came between his legs to press against his groin and she chuckled darkly, twining fingers into his hair and tugging gently as her lips moved down to his neck. She was going to be the death of him, he knew.

The sound of a baby crying dimly registered in his brain, and for a second he wondered where it could be coming from before thoughts of Bae were able to penetrate his lust-addled brain.

“Shit,” he groaned, rolling off of Cora who made a noise of protest. “I’ll be right back.”

“You better be,” she replied, propping herself up on elbows. “I’m not a patient woman, you know.”

He chuckled, adjusting himself to a more comfortable position before walking the short distance to his son’s room. What was it Belle had said? Something about Bailey having reflux problems? Yes, that’s exactly what it was, he realized, as he took in the sight of his son who was basically coated in what was at one point formula. He scooped Bailey up in his arms and tried to shush the boy as he went to the attached bathroom and started a warm bath for the baby. He’d need one for himself after this was all over as well, he realized. He’d also be lucky if the shirt he was wearing was salvageable – Bailey was completely covered in spit-up. And, Arthur realized, the baby was also in dire need of a diaper change. First thing’s first, he couldn’t exactly let his child stew in his own filth.

Usually, changing Bailey’s diaper was a short procedure. It wasn’t exactly pleasant, but Bailey was an easy going baby and didn’t try to interfere like Arthur had been told some children did. Tonight, though, the baby had apparently killed something and stuffed it down his diaper if the smell was anything to go by, and he just simply could not think about the rest of what was going on down there because it was truly the worst thing he had ever experienced. The smell was so thick it was actually sticking in his mouth, and the baby wouldn’t stop crying (not that Arthur blamed him for that one, Bailey was even closer to the diaper than he was).

“Arthur?” Cora’s voice cooed from the hallway, and he almost called out for her to stop except that would have meant opening his mouth. “What’s taking so long – oh God, what is that smell?”

She was in the doorway now, wearing nothing but lingerie and wrinkling her nose.

“It’s alright,” he managed to say. “I’ll be back in a little bit. I just need to get him cleaned up first.”

Cora had a hand over her face and was staring at the two of them with disbelief on her face.

“Is it always that bad?” she gagged.

“No,” he replied. “He’s just a little sick.”

“I’m going to be a little sick,” she said. “How can you stand that?”

Because he had to, but he didn’t think he could say anything to her without starting a fight so he instead focused hard on getting Bailey clean and disposing of the dirty diaper.

“Can you turn off the water in the tub?” he asked Cora, who was still staring at him like he’d grown a second head.

She nodded and retreated to the relative safety of the bathroom and he heard the water stop.

Bailey had stopped screaming now that most of the cleanup was done, thankfully, only whimpering softly with his displeasure and discomfort.

“I know, baby,” Arthur cooed to his son. “I wouldn’t like to be sticky like that, either. I know it’s so gross but we’re almost done here and then you can have your bath and we’ll all be good as new, yeah?”

Bailey seemed a little soothed by the sound of his voice at least, and Arthur felt his heart swell with fatherly pride and adoration. He was doing a good job at this and they were going to be okay.

“The water is off,” Cora said, having emerged from the bathroom in the middle of Arthur’s speech to the baby. “Are you okay here?”

“Yeah,” Arthur said, picking Bailey up and cradling him to his chest. “We’re okay. I just have to give him a bath and then I’ll be right back.”

Cora wrinkled her nose at him again and took a step back when he went to move into the bathroom.

“You might want to take a shower yourself,” she reminded him, staring at his shirt. “I think I’m going to take off. You clearly have your hands full here.”

“You’re probably right,” he admitted. “This could take a while.”

“I’ll call tomorrow,” she promised, leaning forward and kissing him on the lips for a long moment, before jumping backward with a shriek.

Looking down, it was easy to see the reason – Bailey had managed to leave a trail of spit-up down the entire front of her chest. Cora looked absolutely horrified, glaring at the two of them as though they had planned this.

She stormed out of the nursery and he flinched at the sound of the slamming door, causing Bailey to start screaming again. Arthur grimaced, and carefully put Bailey into the tub to the sound of Cora slamming various doors throughout the upstairs and finally the outside. He’d give her a day or two to cool down and then check up on her. She’d always had a bit of a temper, after all. She’d come around, she always did.

Bailey began to calm down as his father poured the warm water over his chest and shoulders. Poor baby, Arthur thought. He hadn’t asked for any of this. It only took a few minutes for Bailey to yawn and start putting chubby fists to his eyes as he fought sleep.

“That’s my boy,” Arthur whispered to the infant. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be fine in the morning.”

Once he had his son re-diapered and swaddled in a nice warm blanket, he sat down in the rocker he’d put in near the crib, cuddling Bae against his chest and rocking the baby gently back and forth, careful not to upset his stomach again. Arthur couldn’t help wondering how Belle would have handled the situation rather than Cora. Would she have stormed out? He couldn’t imagine she would have, she’d lived with him for months on her own, and anyway she seemed to be made of sterner stuff than that. No, Belle wouldn’t have fled. He’d have been lucky if she let him take care of the baby by himself, actually. She would have taken Bailey almost immediately, soothing him in that practiced way of hers. Somehow, he was glad it had been Cora instead of Belle here tonight. Maybe Bailey would have been asleep by now, but Arthur would have missed out on soothing him by himself.

It didn’t take long for Bailey to fall asleep, his father following soon after, his arms never once losing their grip on the tiny baby cradled there.

 


	5. Fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold and Belle both face their own choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous said:  
> Remix!TAV: Cora catches gold and belle in a (innocent) compromising-looking situation
> 
> Anonymousnerdgirl said:  
> Adoption!Remix: (Because we all need more boners) Belle and Gold fall asleep on the floor in Bailey's room due to an illness of some kind. Gold wakes up with a stiff back and an embarrassingly stiff penis.
> 
> prissyhalliwell said:  
> Prompt for TAV Remix: Arthur takes baby Bailey to the emergency room. He calls Belle instead of Cora.
> 
> Anonymousnerdgirl said:  
> Adoption!Remix verse: When Bailey gets sick with whooping cough (or something) Belle volunteers to take the night shift with him.

This really wasn’t good. Bailey was crying and Gold couldn’t make him stop. His son’s nose was also running and the baby seemed to have a little fever. If it was daytime, he’d call the pediatrician and ask her about the symptoms. But it was almost midnight and the baby was sick and the only option was staying home or going to the emergency room and Gold had no idea what to do as he tried to shush and rock his son to sleep.

It was sheer desperation that had him calling Belle at that hour and praying she’d be awake. She was young, young people went out on weekends, right?

“Hello?” she said, sounding like she was at least awake if not out with friends.

“It’s me,” he replied. “I’m sorry to call you at this hour, but I need a second opinion.”

“What’s up?”

“Bailey’s sick,” he said. “And I don’t know what to do.”

“What do you mean by sick?” she asked him.

“He’s crying a lot,” Gold replied. “His nose is running and he has a fever.”

“Is he throwing up?”

“He threw up yesterday, but it was better today.”

He’d thrown up on Cora yesterday, actually, but for some reason Gold really didn’t like talking about Cora with Belle. Not that Belle had ever said anything about not liking Cora, but for some reason his mind liked to keep the two women separate as much as possible.

“How high is his fever?” she said and he kicked himself for not even thinking to check.

“Hold on,” he replied, juggling the phone and the baby to get into the drawer he kept the thermometer in and putting it in Bailey’s ear. He almost dropped the phone when Bailey tried to squirm away from the cold thing his father was putting in his ear, but managed to hold on to the baby and the thermometer and the phone at the same time. After what seemed like an eternity, the thermometer beeped.

“Ah shit,” he muttered into the phone as he looked at the digital readout. “It’s 103.”

Belle swore under her breath as well.

“You’ve gotta go to the ER,” she said.

“I know,” he replied, already putting his shoes on and trying to buckle Bailey into the carseat.

Damn, why hadn’t he thought to take the baby’s temperature earlier?

“I’ll meet you there,” Belle said. “Storybrooke General?”

“Yup,” he replied, fastening the baby in and hurrying to the car. This was going to be a long, long night.

 

Belle didn’t know why she was doing this. This wasn’t her baby (anymore). Bailey had a dad now and his dad had a girlfriend and whether or not Belle liked Cora (she didn’t) it wasn’t her place. And yet here she was rushing into the emergency room after midnight and asking the nurse to see Bailey Gold. It took some explaining and a phone call to his father to get her back to the exam room, but she was there soon enough.

“How is he?” she asked as soon as she made it into the room.

Gold was holding Bailey who was sleeping soundly in his father’s arms.

“He’s okay,” Gold said. “They gave him some acetaminophen and his fever went down, so now we’re just getting some tests done.”

He hadn’t given him any Baby Tylenol. Belle wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh or start beating Arthur Gold with her purse. She’d rushed down to the emergency room because he hadn’t given the baby anything to take his fever down. She settled for collapsing into one of the chairs and trying hard to bring her heart down to a reasonable level.

“What do they think it is?” she finally asked.

He shrugged helplessly, and Belle sighed again and settled into a chair to wait. Maybe dozing in an uncomfortable plastic chair wasn’t her first choice of ways to spent her Saturday night, but she was worried about Bailey. She really wasn’t sure what she was thinking by staying involved in their lives so long. Gold was completely clueless about babies, but she had been, too, and they’d both survived that. He’d probably get the hang of it a lot faster if she’d just butt out. The more she spent with the two of them, the more obvious it was that she was going to have to back off at some point. She just wasn’t really sure how to broach that subject with Gold, though. It was definitely a no-win situation.

The rest of the night was a lot of waiting, punctuated by a visit from the pediatrician who diagnosed Bailey as having a ‘fairly nasty cold’ and suggested clear fluids, over the counter treatments, and a follow-up with the pediatrician.

“I’m sorry you came out here for nothing,” Gold said as she held the baby so he could give the administrator at the desk the copay.

“It wasn’t nothing,” she replied, even though it had been nothing and they both knew it. “Anyway, it’s nice to see Bailey.”

“I’m glad,” he said, studiously not looking at her. Well, whatever made him happy. If he didn’t want to look at her then Bailey would. She patted the baby’s hair, brushing his curls off his sticky forehead.

“You’re going to need a bath when you get home, aren’t you?” she cooed, bouncing him a little and trying to help him settle down for his father. “You’re all sweaty and gross. Yes you are!”

Bailey smiled, nuzzling into her neck and popping his fingers into his mouth drowsily.

Gold did smile at the two of them a little bit then, before holding his arms out to take his baby back, but Bailey whined when she tried to hand him over and dug his free hand into her hair before she could switch him over.

“It’ll be okay, baby,” she shushed. “You’ve gotta go home with your daddy now.”

Bailey just let out a high-pitched shriek as she tried to disengage him again, and finally his father seemed to give up.

“I wouldn’t usually ask this,” he said, still not looking directly at her. “But would you mind coming home with us tonight? I just don’t think I can handle him crying again.”

He sounded like his nerves were about shot, and she could feel her resolve to get away from this family before she became too hopelessly entangled beginning to weaken again. She was already in over her head, and she knew it was only going to hurt her in the long run. But Bailey was warm and heavy on her shoulder, and she didn’t really want to give him up just yet. If she was going to hurt no matter what, couldn’t she enjoy this just a little bit longer?

So she held the baby in the backseat while Gold drove at a crawl back towards his house, because Bailey wouldn’t stop crying if she tried to put him down, and she gave herself just the littlest sliver of happiness at how much he loved her and how he’d miss her if she was gone. She didn’t have anybody else who would, but Bailey loved her regardless.

Once they were back to Gold’s house, it took a long, long time to get Bailey asleep enough that he’d let her put him down in his crib. It was so damn late, she just wanted to collapse into bed, but instead somehow she and Gold ended up sitting on the floor of the nursery watching the baby sleep.

“You’re good with him,” he said after a little while. “Really, really good with him.”

“He’s not a hard baby,” she replied. “He just needs a lot of attention.”

Gold wasn’t looking at her, but this time it made sense. She didn’t really want to look at him, either. Something felt too intimate about sitting here in the dark exhausted beyond all reason. Bailey really wasn’t hard. Or at least, not harder than one would expect given his circumstances.

“You know about his special needs,” she said into the darkness. “Don’t you?”

“A little bit,” he admitted. “It was in his file, but I don’t really like to think about it too much.”

“It’s not so bad anymore,” she replied. “He was pretty much weaned off the drugs that had been in his system by the time he was with me.”

“I still can’t believe she was using while she was pregnant,” he muttered, and she saw his hands clenching out of the corner of her eye. “Of all the selfish…”

“I know,” she said softly, reaching out to put her hand on his wrist in what she hoped was a comforting manner. “I can’t believe it, either. But he’s okay now, and that’s the important thing.”

He was probably always going to need some extra attention, though, and they both knew it. Bailey had been born addicted to drugs. He’d escaped the worst of the side effects, no birth defects anyone could see, and while he’d been little at birth he ate like a champ and had made up a lot of the size difference with his peers. Still, there was no telling what the long term effects were going to be until he was older. So far he’d made all his milestones, just maybe a little towards the end of the curve.

“I’m still not sure why they let her have him back, though,” she muttered, giving voice to the one bitter little thought she’d never really been able to express to anyone. How on earth had his mother gotten custody?

“From what I understand,” Gold said. “She cleaned up and got custody back. Then she had some kind of breakdown and brought him to the hospital and that’s when they gave him to you.”

“Oh,” she said. “That makes sense, I guess. I mean, I only really met her once at a court appearance.”

“I suppose,” he said. “Still, I wish they’d taken him away sooner.”

“Me too,” she said, feeling her eyes start to droop. “But we can’t fix it.”

“We can’t,” he replied.

Belle felt her eyelids begin to droop as they sat there on the floor in the dark. This wasn’t her family, but it was easy to let herself forget for just a little bit as she slid off to sleep.

 

“What the hell is this?!”

Gold awoke with a start at the unholy shriek that shot through the nursery. It took him a moment to figure out what the hell was going on. Cora was standing in the doorway, with her hands on her hips and a glare on her face. He’d fallen asleep on the floor of the nursery somehow, and Belle was laying with her head on his chest. Or, well, she had been, until Cora’s exclamation had roused the baby, who started screaming. Belle had jumped up and grabbed him from the crib and was now standing there, holding Bailey protectively in her arms and looking at Cora like a deer caught in the headlights.

“I can explain,” he blurted out at last, as though that weren’t a suspicious thing to say. “We took Bailey to the hospital last night and I guess we fell asleep after.”

“You guess?” Cora exclaimed, her eyes darting over towards Belle and narrowing dangerously. “Oh of course, falling asleep together is the most natural thing in the world after going to the emergency room! Everyone is doing it!”

She punctuated her last word by grabbing a cushion out of a rocking chair and throwing it at him while he tried to get his feet under him and stand up.

Bailey was crying in earnest now and he could see Belle bouncing him and shushing, trying to get him to calm back down.

“Can we not do this with the baby right here?” Gold asked angrily, deciding the best first course of action would be to get Cora and Belle in separate rooms and then try to calm her down.

“I’m sorry,” she shot back. “Do you not want your little girlfriend to hear me?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her she had the wrong idea, because Belle wasn’t his anything, but before he could put his thoughts together Belle was storming out of the room with the baby leaving him alone with Cora. He heard Bae’s wailing echo through the hallway and the slam of one of the bedroom doors closing behind them, and he knew then that one way or the other he wasn’t going to be able to keep both women in his life.

 

 


End file.
